Supreme Court of Canada dismisses doctor's challenge to family physician allocation system

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal from a Montreal doctor arguing that Quebec's allocation plan for family physicians and the Health Minister's methods were invalid and hurt Montreal specifically.

Dr. Mark Roper argued that Montreal is at a disadvantage compared to other regions of Quebec because the city has the worst registration rate with a family doctor and that Minister Christian Dube deprives the metropolis of family doctors in favour of other regions.

Roper's lawyer, Julius Grey, argued that the system violated the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms.

Grey knew that the chances of the Supreme Court hearing the case were minimal. He, however, believes the case is a good one.

He said the fact that basing the distribution of doctors on the population misses several key factors.

"They didn't count the fact that in Montreal many people come in from outside for instance," said Grey. "Therefore, if you only give the number of doctors based on the population resident in a place, you really only hurt the areas with teaching hospitals, with tourism, with everything else."

Quebec Superior Court Justice Dominique Poulin ruled in 2022 that "there was no basis to conclude that the minister's decision was unreasonable, nor was there any basis to find that there had been breaches under either of the Charters," according to the SCC ruling.

The court denied the injunction and that ruling was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2023 and now the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court does not give a reason for dismissing cases.

Grey argues that a medicare case based on individual freedoms is important as health care administration in provinces, particularly Quebec, have become far too centralized.

"The fashion in our times is to allow the bureaucrats to do everything," said Grey. "The medicare system is in some ways very inefficient precisely because it's over-bureaucratized and they should allow more doctors in the Montreal area.

"In the future a case about the administration of medicare, and it doesn't matter which province, is necessary."